Here’s the news from our latest newsletter. It’s mostly a compilation of Minnesota-related stories from the blog in the last month – but sometimes it’s nice to have it compiled.
News from the Blandin on Broadband Blog
Blandin Broadband Conference & Community Broadband Awards
Blandin’s 2008 Broadband conference, Connected Communities: Making the Net Work for Minnesota was a great success. The first Minnesota Community Broadband Awards celebrated strides made in Minnesota cities and towns; the Ultra High-Speed Task Force heard from members of the public on their need for broadband, Robert Bell explained his 7 Habits of Intelligent Communities and more. http://tinyurl.com/9u7kth
New Broadband Toolkit
At broadband conference, Blandin unveiled the new and improved Broadband Toolkit. It features the best of the best applications that require significant bandwidth in the business, government, education, health care and consumer sectors. It also includes sections on Market Development, Community Assistance and Community Networks. Much of this information comes from our years of working with communities. http://broadband.blandinfoundation.org/toolkit/
Senator Klobuchar’s Broadband Roundtable
Held December 29, Senator Klobuchar convened a roundtable to discuss broadband in Minnesota especially given President-Elect Obama’s interest in expanding broadband during the second phase of his economic stimulus plan. The roundtable included Blandin Broadband Initiative team member, Bill Coleman. http://tinyurl.com/6wa84k
Minnesota Broadband Task Force
The Minnesota Broadband Task Force continues to meet monthly. In December they heard from several broadband providers in the telecommunication, wireless and cable industries. The speakers indicated that the market is successfully driving broadband expansion. Addressing policy, they promoted flexible regulation and investment in the form of tax cuts, grants and loans. http://tinyurl.com/7jjw7s
TISP Forum
The Telecommunications and Information Society Policy Forum presented a session on Private Providers and Public Partners: New Approaches in Bringing Ultra High-Speed Broadband to Minnesota Communities. Conversation focused on open networks and shared networks from the providers’ perspectives. http://tinyurl.com/83ykhv
Minnesota is Number 18
According to PC Magazine and their readers, Minnesota service providers rank 18 in terms of speed and 34 in terms of customer satisfaction. http://tinyurl.com/7qypg5
The Blandin Foundation has compiled a list of “Hot Sites for Home Business Tools” http://tinyurl.com/75e6c4
Local Broadband News
Adams
Southland Public Schools in SE Minnesota talk about how they use broadband to better serve the students and save money. http://tinyurl.com/9cxqxy
Albany, Freeport and New Munich
Minnesota-based Albany Tel is working with ADC to upgrade Albany Tel’s copper lines to a fiber network. Albany Tel serves Albany, Freeport and New Munich. http://tinyurl.com/7tks4o
Burnsville
Skiers can now get online at Buck Hill; they have expanded their wireless access. http://tinyurl.com/7sp4a6
Fridley
Fridley-based Medtronic Inc. pulled a video from YouTube after a consumer group charged the video was an advertisement that lacked warnings required by the FDA. http://tinyurl.com/888vz7
Goodhue County
Goodhue Public Schools hired a technology integration specialist to help teachers integrate technology into the classroom. http://tinyurl.com/8zzvbq
LeRoy
The LeRoy City Council gave permission to Axxess WiFi to attach a wireless unit to the water tower. http://tinyurl.com/7tsjtw
Monticello
The FTTH saga continues in Monticello. Both the Mayor of Monticello and TDS have published letters to the Editor in the local paper detailing their sides of the fiber story. http://tinyurl.com/9f98sb
Northfield
Northfield is recognized for the local community embracing social networking tools such as community blogs. http://tinyurl.com/7wr3lm
Red Wing
Red Wing has a channel on YouTube where the city has posted 21 videos, which have been viewed 2,665 times. http://tinyurl.com/a33lvc
Park Rapids
Senator Amy Klobuchar and Representative Brita Sailer held a roundtable in Park Rapids in early December where broadband featured highly. http://tinyurl.com/7hm8n3
Staples
Telemonitoring at Lakewood Healthcare is helping patients feel more in control of their healthcare and remote access to patients has provided a real boon with winter weather storms in the area. http://tinyurl.com/7j4uos
St Paul
St Paul was host to the annual Government IT Symposium, where 1000 attendees discussed issues such as network security and cost-effective network management. http://tinyurl.com/a245wr
Twin Cities
The Digital Inclusion Fund Advisory Board awarded nearly $200,000 in Digital Inclusion Fund grants to eight community organizations to help support technology access and literacy in Minneapolis. http://tinyurl.com/73nmg9
Wadena
Telemedicine helps patients in Wadena who no longer have to make the drive 6 hours to and from the Cities. Wadena has forged ahead with telemedicine despite lack of support from Medicare but it looks like Medicare may soon help support remote healthcare visits. http://tinyurl.com/8wc9zy
(Many stories are gathered from local online newspaper. Unfortunately each newspaper has a different policy in regards to archive news and therefore we cannot guarantee access to all articles cited.)
Events
February 3-4 – MTA Day on the Hills (St Paul MN) http://www.mnta.org/
February 20 – New Times – New Tech (Minneapolis MN) The 2009 nonprofit technology and communications conference. http://www.mncn.org/nptech/awards.htm
March 2-4: Minnesota Telecom Alliance: 2009 Annual Convention and Trade Show – http://www.mnta.org/events/events.html
April 27-29: Broadband Properties Summit 09 (Dallas TX) http://www.bbpmag.com/2009s/
Coleman’s Corner
Prospects of a national economic stimulus package have motivated broadband activists to begin strategizing the best ways to get in on the gold rush. I am on the listserv of one ad hoc group that generates at least 100 emails per day with the assorted rants, diversions and opinions worthy of talk radio. Much of the discussion is interesting, but it is equally frustrating. In our quest to develop the “best” legislation, all of the unanswered policy questions lay just below the surface nibbling and chewing on each consideration. Questions about ownership, open access, role of the public sector, user silos like health care and education, capacity requirements and urban/rural services are unresolved in our group and will probably be debated at the Congressional level as the stimulus legislation moves forward. So much debate, in fact, that I would not be surprised to see broadband left out of the package due to the controversy. Our own Minnesota Ultra High-Speed Broadband Task Force will soon be getting into the nitty-gritty of these conversations.
Over the holidays, I was honored to participate in a panel discussion with Senator Amy Klobuchar. You can see the notes of this meeting on http://tinyurl.com/6wa84k. As it came time for me to speak, other panelists had stolen much of what I had planned to say. Luckily, I had brought along a copy of the Blandin Broadband Strategy Board’s principles. I was able to use the principles as a way to frame some of the others’ comments and put them in a policy perspective. These principles are several years old, but are holding up very well and the Strategy Board deserves much credit for their thoughtful work. The principles are Ubiquity (broadband everywhere), Symmetry (equal upload and download speeds) Affordable, Competition, World Class, Collaboration, Neutrality, and Interoperability. I encourage you to go online to the new Blandin Broadband Portal at http://broadband.blandinfoundation.org to see the complete listing of the principles and the vision and to use these principles as the starting point for the discussion about broadband in your community and with your elected officials.
The funding frenzy that is now underway certainly points to the value of planning. Those communities that have developed a shared vision, understand their needs and built a local consensus are well-positioned to take advantage of the funding streams that are likely to be appropriated in the next 90 days. Some will say they are lucky, but I agree with the axiom – Luck is where preparation meets opportunity! If you want to move your community forward, but do not know where to start or what your next step should be, check out the program details and online application for Community Broadband Resources at http://tinyurl.com/97qv34